I have been at a loss for words lately.
I have been feeling all sorts of feelings, but I can never seem to find the right words to express them.
When I was little, I was painfully shy. (So shy in fact, that school conferences were arranged to discuss my shyness.) While I had a difficult time speaking up in the typical verbal sense, I discovered a way to communicate that didn't involve words... Art. Throughout my life, I have found that even when I don't know what to say, I can turn to my familiar friends, drawing and painting, to help see me through... It's my visual voice.
Since I currently find myself in the all-too-familiar predicament of struggling to verbalize my feelings, I was excited to read this post by Alisa Burke. When she shared the #artistsforlove movement that a beautiful and generous group of artists have started, it felt like a call to the easel.
This is my offering...
Click here for a hi-resolution downloadable & printable version.
No matter where you live, no matter what you believe, I think we can all agree that we could all use a little more kindness right now.
(A painting I made of Patience in February 2014.)
Kindness is not doing acts to appease our guilt
or to try to prove our goodness,
Revolutionary Kindness asks us:
.....to be bold in our resistance to what we know is not right/true
for our fellow humans…
...to be honest with each other and ourselves about the state of our nation (and hearts) and the ways we have individually contributed…
...to be willing to be uncomfortable while we learn the nuances and implications of our white privilege…
...to keep trying when we get it wrong…
...to be quiet and listen to the groups of people who have a different
skin color, religion, sexual orientation and abilities…
...to be ridiculously bold in our belief of the power of empathy and kindness…
...to act, to serve, to give - not because we are good people,
but because we *know* and deeply feel our own humanity...
and know just how much we need each other
and how much we need kindness ourselves…
...to believe that kindness can change or touch something
when no one else around you can see or believe it…
....to take kindness to places where none seems to exist, or to seek and discover it in the unimaginable…
...to try, just try kindness as a way of understanding the world and yourself…
...to offer what we have and nothing more, not to save the world, not to fix, but to follow our call as humans - the outcome is not our business.
This kindness humbles you, makes you fierce, stretches you in ways you didn't see coming, checks you, heals you, reveals your biases, comforts, disturbs, empowers, surprises...it changes *you*. ❤️
-Patience Salgado
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Lovely thoughts here, Kristin. Art for me is sometimes an expression of what's in my "secret self", those things that only God knows. I lead a very rich inner life! Regarding the thoughts on kindness, it's a beautiful writing. This is how good people behave. Isn't it too bad that things like this can't pluck oute the evil that people allow into their hearts? Have a most blessed and bountiful day.
ReplyDeleteLovely portrait you did, Kristin. Also, the hands forming the heart are beautiful. We can all use more kindness as well as dispense more. I think the heart could be larger so that it includes "the bullied", "Christians under persecution", "military", "men who can't find work", etc.
ReplyDeleteI think kindness is such an important quality to have, lovely post and art.
ReplyDeletewe will be the new underground railroad if it comes to that. i still trust the majority of this country who knows the meaning of equal under the law.
ReplyDeletelove to you, kristin, thanks for the assurance.
love
kj